Well it's been almost 2 months since I placed the order for NJDevs' very own brick to be placed in Championship Plaza.. You wouldn't believe the stress this thing has given me but I think it will all be worth it when we finally have our very own brick that every member can be proud of..

So here's the saga of the NJDevs brick:

The idea first came to me at MB30 Day. I saw the ad and immediately thought "NJDevs needs to have a brick here". So after bricks went up for sale I, along with the help of DM, started raising donations to purchase a beautiful 4x8 brick. We raised the $155 needed in about 12 hours and raised another $50 (donated to DM for the site) in another 6 hours. So our original design was Line 1: WWW.NJDEVS.COM / Line 2: A FORUM FOR ALL FANS / Line 3: WELCOME TO HELL!.... And I went ahead and put in the order.

Then, a member of the forum placed a call asking if the brick would be alright. This launched a small investigation by the brick company into what exactly www.NJDevs.com was. They then realized we were advertising for a Devils related group and said that we had to remove the WWW. and .COM from the brick. So I talked to them on the phone for a while and finally agreed. Then a few weeks later they said we had to remove the word FORUM from the brick, so after another long phone call and some thinking time I decided to change FORUM to HOME. All good, until I got a letter about my family's brick and where it was going to be placed. So I call up the brick company and ask what happened to the NJDevs brick. They tell me the top guy in their company who oversees approval of bricks shot us down and they would get back to me as to why. So they call back and say we now have to remove NJDEVS from the brick because it's still related to the Devils. I then get into a whole legal debate with them (mind you all of this is while I'm supposed to be at work) and they basically tell me I have to change it, and by the way pal no refunds.

At this point I feel like my heart has been ripped out. Here I had taken an idea of mine and gotten donations and tons of support for the NJDevs brick, and now this company was telling me I couldn't put NJDEVS on it. How can you possibly represent the forum on a brick without putting its name?! I nearly broke down at my desk. But I was determined to make something we could all be proud of. So I got to thinking about how I could do the impossible and to be honest you guys were my motivation to not just say fvck it. I wanted to do something great for this forum and leave my mark. I decided I would have to scrap the marketing part of the brick and just do something that would make everyone happy to be a part of NJDevs. So I came up with a sentimental brick idea. I submitted it along with a sob story about how "we are just a passionate group of fans looking to be proud of our small piece of the team we all love". Those were my exact words. And they approved my final brick idea......

So without further delay, I give you the final version of NJDevs' brick at Prudential Center's Championship Plaza, a brick that will be there 20+ years from now still paying homage to the members of this great forum.......

Sure, it doesn't market the forum but honestly we are the largest Devils fan site (I think, but definitely largest Devils forum) so if anyone is looking to go on a fan site they'll find us easily.. I think this is a great message to all of our members just commemorating the close community we have here, and I hope you all agree with me.. It's also a miracle that I got them to allow NJDEVS to stay on it..

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This brick is for all members of NJDevs, but I would personally like to thank everyone listed below for contributing to its purchase. The message on it is especially for you...

Wow, I can't believe how much hassle it was to just get the name of the website on there. Thank you for all that effort Colin and at least we can have a permanent marker of our spot in the tribute to fandom. A big thanks to all of you who donated to the brick and the site in that short time frame!

(Now I am starting to wonder if the Devils have a problem with us using NJDevs as our site address? Jeez, I guess I better reserve some other domain names for the site. )

Good job fighting for the right to have the name on there. We were considering doing something similar for 2 Man Advantage, but it never materialized...I'm not sure if I would have had the desire to fight through all the crap like you did. Great job.

Any word where the brick is going to be? I got my notice in the mail Saturday; I ordered much later than most people (and around the same time you placed the NJDevs brick order) and wound up in Section 2 like so many others. God I hope they have enough orders to at least fill the area around the logo...

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Proud recipient of the 2011-'12 Sergei Brylin Award for Most Underrated Poster, the 2007-'08, 2008-'09, and 2009-'10 Lady Byng Award for Nicest Poster,

the 2008-'09 Bobby Holik Award for Funniest Poster, and the 2009-'10 NJDevs.com Stanley Cup for Best Overall Poster.
2009 NJDevs.com Survival League Football Champion

Thank you for taking the brunt of this. Were I in our position, I would've given up and just given the donation to DM due to stress. You are truly resilient and thank you for pulling through in the end!

"Quite frankly, all the players are getting paid too much and all the contracts are too long," general manager Lou Lamoriello said. "But if you want to compete in this market and you want to win, there are some things you have to do."

Yeah, there's a brick there-- it must not have loaded for you for whatever reason:

TO NJDEVS PATRONS
TRUE DEVILS FANS
AND LIFELONG FRIENDS

You rock, Colin. We found a keeper in this guy, I can tell you that much.

And I promise, I really do, once I'm in college and not strapped beyond belief for cash I'll make a hefty donation for all of the time I spend and have spent on here. I piss alot of people off, but I feel like this is my home away from home. It's kinda odd how I have an e-family (even if I'm treated like the adopted kid ) that I actually care about-- and it's just that. We all seem to care about eachother: as lame as that may sound to an outsider.

Thanks Colin for putting the brick together-- you mirror my sentiments. And thanks DM and msweet for building and running my little home-away-from-home.. I really, really love this place.